


Traffic jam

by ilse_writes



Series: Partners [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Childbirth, Detectives, Gen, Pre-Relationship, Upgraded Connor RK900/Gavin Reed-centric, at work, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-29
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2020-03-27 12:30:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19012936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilse_writes/pseuds/ilse_writes
Summary: After a long night on the job detective Gavin Reed and his partner RK900 get stuck in a traffic jam just outside the city of Detroit. When their car gets hit they find themselves in a situation that is very different from their usual job as homicide detectives. They deal with death on a daily basis, yet now they have to help a young woman give birth.





	Traffic jam

Coffee. He needed coffee. A double espresso. Or an extra large mug of the regular black gold that came from the coffee machine at the precinct. Ever since they had lobbied for a new - decent - coffee machine last year, Gavin no longer had to bring coffee from home. He only brought his thermos now when he went straight to a crime scene from home, like he did last night. That thermos was empty now, discarded somewhere in the back seat of the car.

It had been a long night; a drugs related shootout gone horribly wrong, with two civilian casualties. Usually Hank and his pet Connor dealt with the Red Ice cases; the gang involved tonight had been on their radar for some time now, but with the civilian deaths Gavin and his partner got called in too. Or rather, RK900 had shown up on his doorstep, saying it was more efficient for the detective to go straight to the crime scene instead of going by the precinct first.

Gavin was already dressed to go out and he didn’t question the android for his impeccable timing. In the six months they were partners now Gavin had learned it was easier to roll with these kind of things instead of fighting the inhuman perfectionism of it. That didn’t mean he blatantly followed the plastic prick; he still went his own way, he just didn’t pick a fight about it anymore. That shit was tiring. And humiliating, in some cases. Gavin did not need to be bent over his desk with his arm twisted to his back in the middle of the fucking bullpen again, thank you very much. Besides, there were better ways to annoy the android. So he just turned around after opening the door to his partner and calmly walked back to the kitchen.

“Detective Reed?” From the sound of it the android was still standing outside his door, ready to go.

“Tin can?” he echoed innocently, filling up his coffee maker.

A moment later the android appeared around the corner, silent as always. Stealth had a new meaning when it came to the RK-series. Where Connor knew to make some kind of sound to make up for his silent footfalls, as not to startle every one of his colleagues when he walked up to them, RK900 didn’t bother with that.  
The android took one look at the coffee machine and said: “I take it that you haven’t read my text.”

“What text?”

“The one I sent you exactly twelve minutes ago, detective. To make sure you could fill up your thermos before I arrived here.”

Gavin didn’t need to look at his phone to know the text was there. It was creepy how well the RK900 knew his habits and schedule, from the way he drank his coffee - black, strong - to the way he prefered to go about analyzing a crime scene - silence, Gavin needed silence. And for everybody to get out of his fucking way.  
RK900 didn’t make himself scarce when Gavin looked around a crime scene, taking in the details. Instead, the six foot plus android performed his own investigation, including that gross way of dipping his finger in blood and sticking it in his mouth for analysing. Those CyberLife designers were fucking perverts. Period.  
However, the android did stay silent until Gavin was done surveying the crime scene, waiting to combine their observations into one concluding image. Gavin wasn’t _that_ much of an asshole to not admit - silently, in his own head - that they worked well together. They were closing cases at a much faster rate than the detective duos that consisted out of two humans. They even gave Hank and Connor a run for their money on some days. And although Gavin prefered to work alone, working with a walking, talking supercomputer did have its advantages.

Like how the RK900 was already cross-referencing the sparsely available footage from the security cameras around the crime scene, sitting in the passenger seat of Gavin’s car. It would save them quite some time at the bureau, although they still had to fill in the necessary reports before Gavin could finally go home and roll into bed. RK900 could do what he always did after Gavin left the precinct: stand in a corner of the storage room and stare at the wall. Or something like that. Gavin didn’t want to think too hard about that lately.

He glanced over at his partner, sitting up stiffly in the car seat. With his eyes glazed over and his LED reflecting yellow in the car window, he looked more robotic than ever. His hands were placed neatly on his thighs; strong hands with slender fingers. Neatly trimmed nails and perfect cuticles, all designed in the labs of CyberLife. Hands that could snap your neck as easy as breaking a pencil. And at the same time those hands were capable of deftly plucking a single cat hair from Gavin’s sweater. After which he put that cat hair in his damn mouth and announced that Gavin had an American Shorthair at home, with traces of the Siberian cat in its DNA. Gavin had snappishly corrected him there were two of them, from the same nest. Plastic prick.

The car beeped to alert him of slowing traffic in front of him, pulling Gavin’s eyes back to the road. He always liked to drive himself, even though the car was capable of automatic driving. Even after a long night like this he still refused to surrender this little piece of control to a machine. As long as he was capable of doing it himself, he would. Getting his driving license was a proud day for young Gavin, giving him a sense of freedom.

An alert on the screen in the center console told him there were roadworks up ahead, with risks of traffic jams. Rows of red lights in front of him turned that risk into a fact. Gavin sweared violently and hit the wheel with both hands. He searched the GPS map for possible exits, only to find out he already missed the last exit and was now stuck on the last stretch of highway that lead to the city center.

“Something wrong, detective?” Grey eyes were now alert and fixed on Gavin, LED no longer yellow but a steady blue.

“Yes, something’s wrong, dipshit!” Gavin hit his steering wheel again and waved his hand at the traffic jam ahead of them.

RK900 glanced at the scene in front of them. “The sun is coming up?”  
He looked back at Gavin with one of his eyebrows marginally raised. The RK900’s range of facial expressions was a lot smaller than that of his predecessor. Connor was made to assimilate, RK900 to assassinate. Gavin knew when he was being made fun of though.

“Fuck you and that non-existing humor module of yours,” Gavin grumbled. “I’m sitting next to the supposed best CyberLife has to offer and you couldn’t even warn me of a traffic jam?!”

RK900 didn’t answer. He only moved his hand over the screen of the center console and the warning of roadworks came to the front again. “It looks like the car already did that for me.”

Gavin made a face and slumped back in his seat. Behind them more and more cars were lining up. No movement up ahead. It looked like they would be here a while.  
“Fuck this! Wake me up when shit starts moving, yeah?”  
He pulled his hoodie over his head and rested his head against the window, not willing to deal with this any longer.

He was jolted awake by a hard bang. The car moved sideways, almost hitting the car in the lane next to them. Gavin should have been jostled in his seat, possibly hitting his head, were it not for his seatbelt and the steel beam of android arm that held him upright instead of slumped against his window.

RK900 moved his arm away and quickly looked him over. Probably even threw in a scan for good measure.  
“Are you okay, detective?”

“Yeah,” Gavin gasped. “What the fuck was that?”

“A car came up over the emergency lane and suddenly swerved. It hit the right side of your car.”

Surely the passenger door was now warped, the window broken. The android’s lap was covered in tiny bits of glass. Gavin sweared loudly, leaning over to check the damage. He fervently hoped the other party was well insured for this shit.  
“Something damaged?” he asked, looking at his partner.

“I think your car door needs to be replaced,” the android answered.

“I meant you, tin can,” Gavin sighed. “Are you… you know, hurt?”

“All systems in check,” came the answer. “No external damage either.”

“Of course not, you’re built like a tank,” he muttered, unfastening his seatbelt.  
“Come on, let’s go see who was stupid enough to hit a cop car.”

Gavin quickly got out of his car, followed by his partner who had to climb over to his seat to get out. Despite his considerable height he managed to make it look easy.  
Showing his badge to get curious bystanders back in their car Gavin made his way over to the other car. The driver was turned around in his seat, fussing over something or someone in the back of the car.  
He rapped his knuckles on the window. “DPD! Step out of your vehicle, sir!”

“We have a situation, detective,” RK900 said apprehensively, peering into the back of the car.

“No shit, tin can,” Gavin deadpanned, eyes focused on the driver. It was a kid, probably barely had his learner’s permit. The boy looked at him with large, round eyes, white as a sheet. Gavin pulled the car door open, gesturing for the kid to get out.  
“What the hell did you think you were doing, kid?!”  
As the kid tried to stammer his way through an explanation, a loud howl came out of the car.  
“What the fuck?”

The kid sweared as well, trying to get back in the car. Gavin yanked him back by his shoulder and looked inside himself.  
In the back seat was a young woman, sweat dripping from her face and clearly pregnant. She gripped the back of the seats with such force that Gavin thought she would rip the upholstery.

“Hospital,” she shouted in a broken voice. “My baby… is coming!”

Gavin shot upright, nearly bumping into his partner as he stepped back.  
“We’ve got a situation, indeed.”

A few minutes later they had a plan in action. They pushed the car back to the shoulder of the road, out of the way from traffic. Gavin quickly put his own car to the side too and put down a warning sign a little down the line.  
RK900 had requested an ambulance, yet their ETA was severely pushed back because of the traffic jam in combination with the morning rush hour. They were on their own for now.

RK900 was checking on the woman while Gavin did the same with the young man.  
“You okay there, buddy?” he asked carefully. “You’re about to become a father, that must be exciting.”

“I’m not the father,” the boy said in a wavering voice. He was shaking like a leaf, Gavin feared he might drop. “She’s my sister.”

“Then you’ll be an uncle, that’s cool too,” Gavin amended, having no experience of either himself.  
The boy nodded, becoming even paler. He must be in shock, Gavin realised.  
“I think you should sit down, kid. You don’t look too hot.”

With the kid leaning against the front wheel of the car, drinking from a bottle of water that Gavin found in his glovebox, he returned to his partner and the soon-to-be-mother.  
“How are things looking up - Woah!”  
Gavin turned on his heels, planting his back against the side of the car. Looking in there had been a bit too much of _looking in there._

“She has contractions every two minutes or less,” RK900 stated, his eyes fixed on the woman in front of him. “Her water broke before they got in the car and the baby is already descended.”

“Meaning?” Gavin gulped, starting to feel a little out of his depth. He was a homicide detective for fuck’s sake!

“The baby is coming,” his partner answered matter-of-factly. “And I need your help.”  
Another loud moan interrupted him.  
“Quickly.”

Gavin followed the android’s instructions, getting him a bottle of water and the first aid kit from the car. They sure lacked when it came to supplies, but it would have to do until the paramedics came.

He stopped by the boy, who still looked pale, but had stopped shivering. “Wanna see your nephew or niece get born?”  
The boy shook his head firmly, his nose scrunched up.  
“Yeah, right… I wouldn’t wanna see that much of my sister either,” Gavin chuckled, ruffling the boy’s hair before he walked away.

Careful to keep his eyes trained on less intimate parts of her body - RK900 was keeping an eye on the other stuff already anyway - Gavin came to stand next to his partner. The android was sitting on his knees, one hand on the inside of her knee to keep her leg up where it couldn’t find purchase on the edge of the backseat, the other being squashed in her fist.  
“You’re doing great, Allison,” he encouraged her, taking deep simulated breaths to guide her.

“I can’t hold it much longer,” the woman panted. “I need… to push!”

“I understand,” RK900 said. “You’re nearly ready. Just hold on a little longer.”  
The android looked up to Gavin, his face earnest.  
“I need you to help her, detective. Get in in the backseat behind her, get her comfortable.”

Gavin blinked owlishly before his senses returned in full again. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we?”  
For once, RK900 didn’t call him out on stating the obvious. He nodded solemnly.  
“You know what you’re doing?” Gavin asked, keeping his voice down to keep the woman from overhearing. Not that she was paying much attention to them, too much engrossed in the powerfull workings of her body.

“I downloaded the necessary protocols. Unless there are complications, we should be fine, detective,” his partner answered.

To the casual onlooker the android might look unmoved, yet Gavin could see the minute tells of tension in his face. He patted him firmly on the shoulder. “We’ll be fine, Nines. Let’s do this.”  
Ignoring the look of surprise on his partner’s face for his use of the nickname, he quickly walked around the car, shedding his jacket and hoodie. The woman was drenched in sweat already, if he had to get up close and comfortable with her, he’d be smart not to wear multiple layers.

As Gavin climbed in the car behind the woman, RK900 - or _Nines_ , why not? That name sounded not too bad, actually - was talking to her encouragingly again.  
“You’re doing great, Allison. My partner is gonna sit behind you, help you relax. Once you’re dilated fully you can start to push.”

Together they helped the woman get in the most comfortable position possible, which basically had her leaning against Gavin’s chest, his arms around her to keep her up. She had one hand on his arm, digging her nails in his skin whenever she got a new contraction. With her other hand she gripped the headrest of the nearest front seat.  
Soon, sweat was pearling on Gavin’s forehead, the temperature in the car climbing now the morning sun was fully over the horizon. They were lucky they didn’t have to do this in the Detroit winter, that would have sucked majorly.

Digging up every nice and encouraging word he could find, Gavin took on the role of supporting partner, while his work partner concentrated on the more medical side of things. To be fair, the woman, Allison, was really doing a great job; considering she was having a baby in the backseat of a car, with the help of two strangers. He had already found out her husband was away for a business trip, making his way back to Detroit right now, probably breaking every speed limit. The baby was a little early, two weeks at most; they had figured he still had time for the trip.  
“You’re a real trooper, Allison,” Gavin told her, wiping her hair from her sweaty face as well as he could. “You can do this. We’re with you.”

“Where’s John?” she grunted.

“Your brother? Right outside the car. He is… he doesn’t -”

“Chickenshit,” Allison interrupted him, digging his nails in her skin as a new contraction came in. Gavin was pretty sure his arm would be covered in marks after this was over, yet he laughed anyway.

Sooner than expected Nines gave her the green light to push and Gavin was amazed by the primal forces Allison showed. His friend Tina always said women were stronger than men and Gavin was prone to believe her now. Not that he would tell her that. Ever.

It went faster than Gavin thought. Or maybe he just lost track of time. Nines said things like ‘the baby is crowning’ and ‘I need you to breathe through your next contraction, no pushing’. And then there was a head out, invisible for Gavin, but somewhere in the cradle of Nines hands. Then shoulders and suddenly a whole baby slithered out, leaving Allison sobbing and panting in his arms.

The whole world stopped for a second as the baby started crying.

“It’s a girl,” Nines announced, the relief clear in his voice. He leaned inside the car, carefully placing the baby on her mother’s chest. Gavin helped her secure her child, a small pink bundle, trying out her lungs for the first time.

“Congratulations, Allison, you’re a mom.” Gavin gave her a little squeeze, his head filled with emotions he didn’t bother to name. Relief was probably the biggest one.

Movement in front of him caught his attention. Gavin stared as RK900 removed his jacket, hung it over the open car door, and started to pull up his black turtleneck sweater. Pale android skin became visible, covering the smooth, hard planes of his stomach and chest. He had beauty marks there too, sprinkled here and there, just as unnecessary as the ones on his face, though equally as attractive. The android reached forward and gently covered the baby with his sweater, tucking her in against her mother.

Gavin was still staring when RK900 inspected his jacket, frowning at how the sleeves were dirty with blood and other body fluids.  
“I have a bag with gym clothes in the back of my car,” Gavin suggested, feeling weirdly embarrassed by his offer. It didn’t help that his partner caught his eyes, locking on them for just a second too long. The android nodded slowly and then disappeared around the car. Gavin concentrated back on the mother and her newborn in his arms. It felt safer to focus on their intimacy than on the well built torso of his android partner.

The sirens of the ambulance sounded, Nines came back dressed in a sleeveless gym shirt that was too tight on him, the brother crawled in the front seat to admire his new niece and the world started spinning again.

The ride back to the precinct was a silent one. Gavin had trouble voicing his thoughts about what they had experienced and his partner seemed equally occupied. They stopped in the parking lot of the precinct when the android spoke up, making Gavin’s world stop momentarily for the second time that day.  
“I think I like it when you call me Nines.”  
He got out of the car without looking back, leaving Gavin gaping and waiting for the world to gain some traction again.

 

***

 

It was a quiet morning at the bureau when officer Person walked up to his desk. “You’ve got visitors, Reed. The Kennedy family?”

“Who?” Gavin turned around in his chair to catch a glimpse of who was waiting by the front desk.

A few desks over, Connor raised his head, his LED circling yellow for a short second. Then he smiled. “Oh, I think you’ll want to see them, detective.”

Gavin made a face at the smug android, but he waved his hand dismissively at officer Person anyway. “Just send them back here, will ya?”

He couldn’t remember the name Kennedy from any of his recent cases and he didn’t have friends called Kennedy either. He didn’t have much friends outside of the job anyway, nor on the job for that matter. So it was a mystery as to who would visit him here. It was a dull morning, with nothing else to do than file away evidence and typing up reports, so a visit was a welcome distraction.

Across the bullpen walked a man and a woman, the man carrying a baby carrier in his right hand. The woman searched the room until her eyes fell on Gavin's face. She smiled and steered her husband in his direction.  
“Detective Reed, how good to see you again!” she said, taking his outstretched hand and immediately moving in to kiss his cheeks.

“Good to see you too, Allison,” Gavin managed, his brain quickly catching him up now he saw the woman from up close.

The man moved the baby carrier to his other hand and shook Gavin’s hand firmly. “Detective Reed. My name is Robert Kennedy. I wanted to thank you in person for helping my wife and daughter when I couldn’t be there.”

“It’s no problem,” Gavin assured him. “Your brother-in-law knew how to get our attention.”  
Now that he thought about it, Kennedy had also been the name on the insurance forms, taking care of the damage of his car.  
“What about your car, by the way?”

Allison chuckled. “We had to get a new one.”

Her husband made a face. “With the damage to the front and the crooked front axle, it was going to be an expensive repair already. And then there was the ruined backseat…”

Gavin chuckled. “Yeah, the upholstery was quite a mess.”  
Childbirth was a nasty business, he had learned that day. Gross and beautiful at the same time.

“Where’s your android partner, by the way?” Allison asked, looking around her. “Nines, I think you called him?”

Gavin didn’t miss Connor’s smirk, nor Lieutenant Anderson’s devilishly raised eyebrows when they heard the woman mention the nickname. With his attention on them he jumped when the android’s smooth voice suddenly sounded from right behind him.  
“Mrs. Kennedy, Mr. Kennedy, what a surprise to see you here.”

“Oh please,” the woman laughed. “You’ve seen my snatch from up close, you can call me Allison.”

“I’m sorry, sometimes she doesn’t have a filter between her brain and her mouth,” her husband apologised quickly, trying to hide his amused smile.

Gavin didn’t bother hiding anything; he laughed out loud when he saw Nines’ bewildered face. Granted, on any other person that face would be called ‘mildly confused’, yet on the android it registered as one of the most extreme expressions Gavin had yet seen on him. The android was quick to cover up, though, asking Allison how she was and asking after the baby.

“We’re doing great! She is such a sweetheart!”

Gavin leaned over the baby carrier, checking out the little baby girl inside it. She was looking around her with wide eyes and she looked completely different from the first time he had seen her, her face all smoothed out and with round cheeks.

“Do you want to hold her?” Allison asked from by his side.

He hesitated, but Allison was already unbuckling the baby from her seat and before he knew it there was a little, warm bundle in his arms. She fit right in the crook of his elbow, her little head resting on his arm, his hand folding around her bum. When Gavin stroked his finger over her little fist, she grabbed it, holding tight and not letting go.

“Her name is Reese,” her mother said warmly. “That name was already on our list and well… because of your surname and because of the RK in your partner’s designation, we thought it was fitting.”

He looked up in surprise, finding both parents smiling like it was the most normal thing in the world to have a child from strangers named after you. His partner’s expression fit his own feelings a little better, Nines also seemed to think this was a big deal.

The android stood at his side, almost leaning against him, looking down at the baby in his arms. “Reese Kennedy,” he said slowly. “It’s a beautiful name.”  
Nines carefully extended his hand, two fingers gingerly smoothing out the creases in Reese’s tiny sweater. The baby made a contented sound, waving her little arms around. A camera clicked.

“That is a great picture,” Allison said, looking at the screen of her husband’s camera. Gavin had missed the thing coming out. “Now Reese can see who helped her into this world when she’s grown up.”

Her husband turned the camera towards them, showing them the picture. Gavin didn’t need to see it to know what it would look like. He only had to look at Connor smiling like a proud big brother, or Hank smirking like the cat who ate the canary to know him and Nines looked way too domestic and intimate like this. Hell, it _felt_ that way too.

To his surprise he didn’t hate that.

_Fuck._

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first try at writing fanfic for Detroit: Become Human. Even though they are only minor characters in the game (RK900 doesn't even do much of anything), I love the dynamic the fandom has created between Gavin Reed and RK900 / Nines. I really like writing about them, so I've turned this into a series ('Partners'). Enjoy!


End file.
